Committee Votes To Approve Sunday Alcohol Sales In Historic Vote

— A bill to allow the sale of alcohol on Sundays in Connecticut supermarkets and package stores — for the first time in nearly 80 years — cleared a key legislative committee Tuesday.

The measure calls for limited Sunday hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., as well as Memorial Day sales that would start this year if the bill is signed into law by then.

The vote on the bipartisan compromise bill marked the first step forward in a long-running battle on one of the most heavily lobbied issues at the state Capitol. The tally by the general law committee was 15-3 in favor of Sunday sales, with two Democrats and one Republican against the measure.

Although they voted to legalize retail alcohol sales on Sundays, legislators rejected other parts of a bill proposed by Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, including beer sales at gas station convenience stores and 2 a.m. closing times for bars seven days a week.

In addition, they rejected Malloy's call for a complicated "medallion'' system for owners to sell their package stores, and they decided to limit the number of package stores that one person may own to three — not nine, as originally proposed by Malloy. The committee also rejected Malloy's plans to allow package stores to remain open until 10 p.m. seven days a week, and the latest closing time now on every day except Sunday will remain at 9 p.m.

After rejecting Malloy's ideas regarding the industry's pricing structure, committee members voted to create a special task force that will study liquor taxes and pricing issues before finishing its work by New Year's Eve.

The Connecticut Package Stores Association, which had successfully worked to defeat Sunday sales every year in the past, suddenly switched its position in favor of Sunday sales to block the more complicated, sweeping deregulation of the liquor industry that was proposed by Malloy. Carrroll J. Hughes, the chief lobbyist for the package stores for the past 36 years, said those changes would have forced hundreds of package stores out of business by giving an advantage to big-money, big-box retailers at the expense of low-margin, mom-and-pop package stores that are making small profits with small staffs.

For nearly 80 years, Sunday sales have been banned in Connecticut under a law dating to Prohibition in 1933. If the law is approved, only one state — Indiana — would remain with an across-the-board ban on Sunday.

The package stores got virtually all of what they wanted — and they blocked the main ideas that they opposed, such as selling beer at gasoline stations. Hughes said the bill was "reasonable,'' adding that he would consult his membership to seek its endorsement.

After the committee vote, at least four more committees could study the issue, depending on decisions by top lawmakers. Any changes in the law must still be approved by the full House of Representatives and the Senate before the legislative adjournment date of May 9 at midnight. The measure would also need the governor's signature.

Brian Durand, the Malloy administration's chief aide on liquor issues, said it was "an enormous success'' to pass Sunday sales for the first time by the general law committee. As the bill moves forward in the legislative process, Durand said, Malloy will continue to push for "pro-consumer'' provisions that include overturning the state law that mandates minimum prices for beer, wine and spirits — a pricing structure that the administration says has made alcohol prices artificially high. Malloy sought the entire package, and he did not propose an entire series of adjustments simply to get the committee to approve Sunday sales, Durand said.

Although many insiders said that the Sunday sales bill was essentially a done deal, the remaining wild card Tuesday morning was how much of Malloy's proposal would be approved by the committee. Some lawmakers wanted to see Sunday sales and very little else in the final bill. Democratic legislators and strategists said that lawmakers, who are facing their own re-election this year, are flexing their muscles more and showing more independence than they did during the honeymoon period of Malloy's first year.

Lawmakers said that Connecticut would now have a brief, two-hour advantage on Sunday mornings because liquor is not sold in Massachusetts or Rhode Island until noon on Sundays.

The End Connecticut's Blue Laws Coalition, which fought for the expansion of alcohol sales, had a mixed reaction Tuesday.

In a written statement, the coalition said that it "is pleased that the General Assembly's General Law Committee voted today in favor of approving Sunday sales in Connecticut. However, the coalition is disappointed that the committee did not adopt the governor's full proposal to reform the state's liquor laws. We hope that the legislature will consider amending the bill to include those provisions and bring CT into the 21st century.''